“And booze?”
“I’m sure it can be arranged,” Liza said. “There’s one more person to update.” The nun pointed to Micah’s backpack, his helmet inside.
“Right, I should tell Bobi what we’re doing as well. Ten minutes,” Micah announced aloud, so that Choro could hear it as well. “We’re getting out of here.”
“This place better have booze…”
Chapter Five
A whirlwind of activity defined the rest of the day. The residence that Youseg had prepared for Micah’s group was indeed nice, but it needed to be tidied up, the furniture inside covered in blankets, cobwebs in many of the corners, and a thin layer of dust on most of the surfaces, all to Soraya’s dismay, the kitsune certainly a neat freak. A few of the rooms needed paint, but construction supplies were readily available and already on site, which gave Micah and the ladies something to tackle over the next few days. The private suites inside shared an open living space, the grand, two-story building providing views of the tops of the trees, red and green prayer flags, and the district beyond, the two floating Heian districts adding a touch of technological wonder to the skyline.
Dinner that night was banquet-style, set out on a long table and served by some of the monks and nuns who called the monastery home, all of whom ate alongside Micah and his group. There was a clear hierarchy here, and Micah and his team were at the top of it, everyone else seated around them. As far as she could tell, there was no indication that the Plains Dweller monks and nuns minded this. They were well-disciplined and mostly quiet, the veils that they wore making them seem mysterious even when they removed them to eat.
This was the exact opposite of a particular member of Micah’s group, Bunni often vying for attention, teasing Soraya, sparking laughter from Milsung and Liza as well as additional commentary from Micah’s grandmother, Yuri eventually silencing them, only for Micah’s grandmother to kickstart things again once it seemed as if everything would calm down.
And so it went.
His grandmother’s request for booze had been honored, Youseg having no problem with keeping the elderly woman happy and drunk. She wasn’t so interested in the prophecy part of their dialogue, and after dinner, his grandmother retired to the residence, her bedroom the only one on the ground floor.
Micah, Choro, Liza, and the ninjas were now seated outside under a different tent, the air cooler here, a few fires burning blue around them.
“Let’s talk,” Youseg told them. “It is time.” While they were all seated at the same level, it was clear that Micah and his group were positioned in a way that would allow Youseg to lead the conversation, and that he was used to being the center of attention. “I would like to talk more about what I have foreseen, and how it really does leave choices to you and your group. This isn’t a hardline prophecy, you see. There seems to be some flexibility, yet you’re here now, and as you’ve already told me, many of the details that I saw in my vision have lined up in a few uncanny ways.”
“I’ve read all the graphic novels,” Choro said. “The others haven’t.”
“That’s good, then some of this will make even more sense to you.”
“I just read the first few, when they were still in the past.”
“I see,” Youseg told Micah. “Not to worry. Now, if it isn’t obvious,” he said, motioning toward himself, “I’m a firm believer in hiding in plain sight. It has allowed me to get away with a number of things, including disseminating the information I learned from the Monks of Repose, who held residencies here in my youth, back when the monastery belonged to Master Ayalen. Much of what I wrote about came from the histories they revealed to me. The earlier stuff, you know. The prophecies and actions that brought the Royal Star Ninjas to our timeline came much later. And that’s what I would like to speak to tonight. Your arrival here tells me that you are reaching the current endgame, at least as far as I have seen. Perhaps there is more to come after, but that is not for me to say.”
“Endgame?” Yuri asked. She sat next to Micah, her legs crossed beneath her. They had had a moment together earlier when they were preparing their room, Micah glad to have her by his side again. There had been so much happening over the past few days that it had been hard to process the absence she’d left in his life, something he continued to feel guilty about. He had been so distracted at the time that he felt that he didn’t really appreciate it until she returned, until the void had been filled. She was necessary, she was an integral part of what was happening, and he knew she would play a big part in what was to come.
“One of you is missing, which is something I didn’t foresee,” Youseg said, perhaps referring to Kami. “But hopefully there will be a point in which she joins you shortly.”
Micah caught Milsung nod out of the corner of his eye.
“If she doesn’t, there’s always you,” he told Liza.
“Yeah, she’s basically one of us now,” Bunni said, Yuri and Soraya nodding in agreement. Milsung didn’t seem to have an opinion on this, likely because she hadn’t been part of the group for very long.
“Very well. Based on what you have told me, and the visions I’ve had, we have reached a crucible. Your next move dictates where this war goes, and it truly is a war, in case anyone has their doubts about this. There’s always a chance that it can fizzle out, but as I’ve said, that part is murky to me. It really depends on what you choose to do next. From what I understand based on our earlier discussion, there are three entities at play: the Society of Monks, the Monks of Repose, and the Hermetics, a rebel group. And even though it warrants a deeper discussion, let me be clear when I say that I agree with you. The rebel group doesn’t have the power to truly run your society, and if they are able to defeat the monks, it could lead to a number of things, from economic to the potential for outside interference, invasion from a foreign entity—that sort of thing. A number of scenarios come to mind.”
Micah nodded. “That’s why we think it needs to be someone within the monks who is taking charge. My vote is on Ahmey, a nun who was part of the Monks of Repose and directly related to Neojuku’s bloodline.”
“Bloodline, huh?” Youseg asked, considering this. “You did mention her earlier. Do you think she is ready?”
“I don’t think anybody is ready for the task of changing a society,” Micah said, “but that is the task that will be thrust upon her if we seek to help her take power, and I think she could handle it.”
“And how old is she?”
“A teenager.”
If this answer phased Youseg, Micah couldn’t tell by his expression. “So a coup in the upper echelons of the Society of Monks, perhaps a shadow one, installing a teenager, and a hopeful agreement with the Hermetics to no longer pursue their actions. Am I understanding where this could potentially go? That, or, if I may, bring the Hermetics to the table, and give them a seat on whatever council is then formed, perhaps bringing in district mayors, new ones that haven’t been corrupted.”
“Yeah, something like that,” Micah said. “It’s still up for debate, but, along those lines. Right?” he looked to the others, and all aside from Milsung seemed to agree.
“Now, for the record, I am not against your country, but Neo-Hokkaido wields great power, and the threat of chemical warfare is something that would change the course of our collective history. To be even clearer: I want no part in forming whatever council you are able to pull together if your plan succeeds, nor do I want to be part of it, nor do I want credit for it. It would cause disruption to have any foreign interference, at least on a visible level. But I am here to bounce ideas off, and if you feel like you have someone, this Ahmey, then that is the first of many steps.”
“So we hit the upper echelon,” Bunni said, skipping ahead. “We install Ahmey, use the mind control mantra if we need to, loop the Hermetics in, and all retire rich and happy.”
“Rich and happy? It couldn’t possibly be that simple,” Soraya said. “And any type of coup will be met with resistance, e
ven if it appears that the upper echelon is going along with it.”
“But that’s where the Hermetics come into play,” Micah said, the pieces lining up in his head now. “Maybe we wrote them off too quickly. What if we make an agreement with them that gives them the power to cool things on the street level if they are given a seat at the table?”
“How?” the kitsune asked. “Last we dealt with them, they were trying to take us into custody.”
“Through Choro.”
“Me?”
Micah nodded to his old friend. “It’s not really that far-fetched. I bet you right now if you offered Julia a seat at the upper echelon, she would take it, even if the Hermetics thought she was betraying them. It would be a move that would give their cause a fighting chance. I like the idea of district mayors, and the Outer Provinces need to be looped in as well in some way, to have some form of representation. It’s… it’s a tragedy what’s going on out there.” Micah recalled how bad the region looked in his brief visit to the black site prison, where Yuri and Bunni were being held. “The sooner we act—especially while the Hermetics are fired up, and the Society of Monks is dealing with the fallout from some of the information that we’ve released—the better. Hate to say that this is a ‘now or never’ type of situation, but that is exactly what it is.”
“In that case, we can start our training tomorrow,” said Youseg. “I will go over what I know about the power I exhibited in the hotel room earlier, the ability to latch onto objects and move them at will from a distance. I’m sure you’re curious. The industria seed we house here is quite strong, and it will unlock the power for you. It will, as always, be your responsibility to cycle it in a way that makes it useful. Considering what you’re going up against, it may be the difference between life and death. So we can do that. We can go over the strategy, you can relax some, knowing that you are safe here, and then you can go back to your country and do what it is you need to do. You are welcome to return here after,” Youseg told them. “You should consider this place home. After all, I built it for you.”
“Why would you do all this?” Yuri asked.
“Because I’m an old fool who trusts his visions, and the world is ready for a change. If the politics of your country can be modified to some degree, it will change the politics of mine, and it will eventually put us on a course to a better understanding with yours,” he told Soraya, “with Jokamatchi. I miss your country; I wish more of my countrymen were able to visit it and experience the culture. I also wish we could compile all the information we have on the ancients and various understandings of industria. Jokamatchi truly is a remarkable place. In any event, there is a way for all of this to work, and a way for it to go horribly wrong. Let’s try to avoid the latter.”
It was easy to fall asleep that night. Even with the turmoil Micah felt was creeping in from the corners all around him, he had a semblance of a plan, and the next day would bring more training, more strategizing, something else for him to focus on. Lying between Yuri and Bunni, Micah was awoken early in the morning by noise in the room Liza was staying in, which happened to be next door. He slowly got out of bed, leaving the ninjas to their sleep as he made his way to the door, Micah in a pair of sleep pants and nothing else.
After a soft knock, he let himself into Liza’s room to find the window open, the temperature of the room much colder than where he had just come from. There was a paint can open, and Liza stood in front of one of the walls, which was now wet with a light lavender color, the nun in her athletic gear, a splotch of light purple paint across her arm, and another across her stomach, her hair pulled back in two tight blonde ponytails.
Liza smiled at Micah as he approached.
“Already renovating?” he asked her.
“Once we handle whatever it is we handle in Neo-Hokkaido, it seems we will be staying here.”
“I can’t deny that.”
“I figured I would spruce up the room a little bit, at least this wall, which gets light from the skylight,” she said, nodding toward the high ceiling. Liza’s space was rather large, similar to Micah’s room, with its own private bathroom. There was a door connecting it to his room, which was currently shut, Micah realizing he could have simply made his way through the door had he wanted rather than circle around.
“Want some help?”
“I’m sort of finished,” she told him. “Can’t you tell?”
Micah examined the wall. Just to be playful, he went for one of the paintbrushes sticking out of the can and rather than slather it across the wall, he ran the brush down Liza’s arm.
“Oops…”
“Hey!” Liza retaliated by sending her brush across his chest, leaving a large lavender mark.
“I’m only trying to help out,” he told her as he streaked paint across her arm again, Micah moving closer to Liza, his eyes settling on her lips.
“I guess you’re right,” she said as she began to unzip the front of her training bra. “I could use a little help. And don’t worry, before you ask, this is the same kind of paint we use inside the monasteries back home. It’s non-toxic. And it washes off skin pretty easily.”
“Non-toxic, huh?” Micah smelled the paint, which wasn’t as strong as some of the paints they used back in his neighborhood in Thunderhama. “I wished it smelled better, something like grapes would be nice.”
“Is that right? Is it because it’s purple? Do all colors need to smell like the fruit they correspond to?” Liza asked as she revealed her breasts to him, her nipples slightly hard, likely due to the cool breeze moving into the room. “Well? Are you going to paint me?”
“Are we doing this?” Micah asked.
“Um, you’re the one that started it.”
You’ve got me dead to rights there, he thought as he placed the tip of his paintbrush against her left breast and then circle what was left of the paint around her nipple, Liza laughing quietly at the way it felt.
“Are you sure you can handle this?” Micah asked as he bent down to get more paint.
“Try me.”
He painted a lavender circle around her other nipple and then connected the two with a line, forming a peak that ran just past her clavicle.
“What are you working on there?” Liza asked as she tried to look down at it.
“That’s a good question, but like any artist, I prefer not to have to explain my work while I’m in the process of creating,” Micah told her. He then painted three horizontal lines across her stomach, Micah so focused on what he was doing that the wet paint brush on his chest took him by surprise. Liza began painting something across his pectoral muscles while Micah added more detail to the circles around her increasingly hard nipples. Whatever this little non-toxic paint session was, he knew that it would likely end in sex, and he might have shot himself in the foot by painting her breasts, which would make it much harder to nuzzle his head between them, or take one of her nipples into his mouth.
You win some and you lose some, he thought as he crouched and placed the paintbrush back in its can.
“Looks like we’ve made a mess of ourselves,” she said, paint now dripping from the end of her brush, which she held at her side.
“We should probably be careful…”
“That’s what the tarp is for.” Liza dropped her brush to the floor. “Do you want to paint my back?”
“Your back?”
Liza got down on her knees and turned away from Micah, hiking her ass into the air, Micah registering exactly what she meant.
“Sure,” he told her as he got down behind her and reached for the paintbrush again. Liza slowly sank her hips back until they pressed against the front of his groin, his erection growing in his sleep pants.
“That tickles,” she told him as he ran the paintbrush across her back, forming a lavender zigzag pattern. Liza began swiveling her hips, and popping her ass up even further than it had been just moments ago. One look down and Micah saw how easy it would be to slip inside her, something he planned to
do sooner rather than later. He made another zigzag pattern across her back, Liza shaking this time. “Yikes. That one really tickled.”
“Maybe it would be more helpful if I could…” Micah placed his fingers around the seams of her athletic shorts and pulled them down, revealing her sex.
“Are you going to paint my ass?”
“Something like that,” Micah said as he placed the paintbrush down on the tarp and hiked his pants down, his cock rubbing against the outer lips of her vagina. As she continued to slowly move her hips back and forth, lubricating his shaft, Micah watched the zigzag pattern he’d painted on her back, and also caught a glimpse of what he had painted across her breasts when she turned and looked over her shoulder at him.
“I thought you were going to paint me,” she teased. “You stopped.”
“I did paint you.”
“Got any other colors?” Liza laughed at her own stupid joke, embarrassed yet finding her own embarrassment funny.
“I think I can manage another color,” Micah told her. “Then we can get cleaned up and try not to tell anyone what happened here, or the mess we made.”
“Probably a good idea,” Liza said as she pressed her pussy back, Micah’s cock naturally finding its way inside. It hadn’t been a lot of foreplay, but the uniqueness and suddenness of the situation, and Liza’s clear horniness, had made both of them wetter than Micah would have expected.
Soon, the sound of her ass and thighs slapping against the front of his body filled the room, the faint smell of paint reaching Micah’s nostrils every time Liza moved back. She was doing most of the work at first, but soon Micah took over, clamping his hands on her waist and thrusting his hips forward.
They went at it like this until Liza shifted onto her back and lifted her legs, Micah fingering her lightly as he moved in and out, the two making eye contact, Liza’s lips slightly parted, her painted breasts bouncing up and down. It was mesmerizing in a way, Micah soaking the moment in, something alien about the way they were doing it.
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